Emerging from the cloud

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I’ve been rather quiet this year. The main reason for this is that 2016 has not been kind to me. Following the loss of my oldest friend in January, several other things have hit my personal life this year including ill health (both to myself and members of my family) and the loss of my grandmother. These things have left my mental health in a more fragile state than normal so, to look after myself while keeping up with my day job and other responsibilities, the blog has had to take a back seat.

I don’t want to give you the impression that 2016 has been a complete disaster for me. I still enjoy my job at eLife and have taken on some new responsibilities this year, including managing the eLife podcast. In January I set up a new Girl Guide unit, which meets regularly to provide 10-14 year old girls in my local area with opportunities to have fun and learn new skills. We have a lot of fun at our meetings and the numbers of girls in the unit has gradually grown over the year. My friends and I have made good progress with the work on the run-down allotment plot we took on earlier this year. Most importantly, this year has highlighted how wonderful my friends and family are and how lucky I am to have them in my life.

The other reason that I have had less time to blog this year is that I’m currently taking a distance-learning course in proofreading. I decided to take this course to get some more formal training in proofreading and also to learn more about the publishing industry as a whole. Excluding my PhD – which felt more like working than studying – this is the first course of study I’ve taken since I finished my undergraduate degree in 2009. It does feel a bit strange to be working on “exercises” and “assignments” again, but I’m really enjoying it so far.

I’m starting to emerge from the cloud that seems to have followed me around this year so I’m hoping to be able to blog more often. Watch this space.